EXCLUSIVE: Radio stations want longer non-compete
Commercial Radio Australia is to lobby to lock out competitors from the digital market for even longer than previously agreed.
The price of driving the digital launch is that only existing players can launch stations on the new platform for the first six years. But digital radio equipment suppliers have been briefed that the CRA is now going to lobby for an extension to ten years.
The chief disadvantage for consumers of this kind of barrier to competition is that it will inevitably mean less choice and certainly no new players. But one of the lessons of the digital debacle in the UK, where there was no such barrier, is that it can be extremely hard for stations to make a profit from digital unless they get some protection.
3PM UPDATE: CRA boss Joan Warner confirms that they will be lobbying for a longer period, to match the extension the free TV channels are receiving while they implement their digital offerings. She says: “Of course we will. We’ll be saying to government that we want parity with television.” She adds: “We’d like 20 years, actually.”
And she claims that denying access to new players will not limit listener choice. She says: “I think it’s the only sensible way forward. it will allow the existing stations to invest and experiment with different formats.”
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Typical bloody protectionist Australian media – always wanting to hang on to their cosy monopoly.
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